Tastes of Culture

The organizers of the Ford Theatres have selected three Los Angeles theater companies to present plays during the 2010-11 season of the [Inside] the Ford play series. Among the productions will be a world premiere drama plus the local premieres of plays by Neil LaBute and Barbara Lindsay.

Rogue Artists Ensemble will present "HYPERBOLE: origins" (Oct. 30 to Dec. 12), a new show featuring puppetry, masks and multimedia that explores the roots of storytelling. The company specializes in unconventional stage dramas that bring together various forms of performance art in an effort to push the boundaries of theater.

Neo Ensemble Theatre will present the L.A. premiere of Lindsay's "Free" (Jan. 22 to Feb. 27), the playwright's 1989 magical realist drama about a man who must contend with the limitations of gravity and his own need for acceptance.

LaBute's "The Mercy Seat" (March 19 to April 24) will receive its local debut in a production by the Vs. Theatre Company. The drama, which debuted at New York's MCC Theatre in 2002, tells the story of an office worker and his mistress who find a new lease on life following the 9/11 attacks.

[Inside] the Ford chose the three companies from a competitive process involving small L.A. theater companies that don't have a permanent venue. The indoor theater facility, tucked underneath the Ford Amphitheatre, is an intimate space with 87 seats.

Last season, also featuring three productions, encompassed dramas by Julie Hebert, Charles Mee and Sheila Callaghan. The Ford is run by the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

-- David Ng

Photo: The entrance to the Ford Theatres complex in Hollywood. Credit: Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

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It's official: There will be a second season to Bravo's reality series "Work of Art: The Next Great Artist."

Producers of the series announced Wednesday that they will be holding open casting calls later this month in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. In the announcement, they said that like last season, the show is looking for people ranging from "recent art school graduates to artists with gallery representation and pieces in the permanent collections of internationally recognized museums."

The application form consists of 14 pages of questions that include everything from the applicants' education to their art-world experience to their thoughts on the current state of the international art scene. For Season 1, producers selected 14 artists to participate in the series. They have not specified how many contestants there will be for Season 2.

Magical Elves and Pretty Matches are returning as the production companies for the show. (The latter is run by Sarah Jessica Parker, who served as an executive producer on Season 1.)

No air date for Season 2 has been announced, though one can assume that it will kick off sometime in 2011.

For L.A.-area artists, "Work of Art" will be coming to the Patrick Painter gallery in Santa Monica's Bergamot Station for an open casting call on Sept. 19.

Organizers cautioned that people traveling to the casting calls from out of town should be aware that callbacks are the following day in each city, and that hopefuls will not know whether or not they have a callback the next day until as late as 10 p.m. the day of the open call.

Keep reading for more details on the open casting calls...

Los Angeles
Patrick Painter Inc., Bergamot Station
Sunday, Sept. 19
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Chicago
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Sullivan Galleries
Wednesday, Sept. 22
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

New York
Brooklyn Museum
Saturday, Sept. 25
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

-- David Ng

Photo: Simon de Pury and Sarah Jessica Parker in the finale of Season 1 of "Work of Art." Credit: Bravo

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